Central College students raise money for orphans

Students at Central College Christian Academy have raised more than $7,000 to help support orphans in Honduras.

JENNIFER NESBITT, ThisWeek Community News

Students at Central College Christian Academy have raised more than $7,000 to help support orphans in Honduras.

Through its "Hoops for Honduras" fundraiser, the school raised $7,555 for the Montana de Luz orphanage. That more than doubled the school's $3,000 fundraising goal.

"The kids and the school just picked up on it. There was sort of an understanding, 'They're like us, let's help them,' " said Tim Loehr, a member of the board that oversees Montana de Luz.

"They were really excited to see that they could help other kids like themselves. One hundred percent of the money goes to the orphanage."

To raise the money, students at the school solicited sponsors for the "Hoops" events. Sponsors gave either a flat donation or agreed to pay a dollar amount for each basketball shot a student could make in a five-minute period.

Students of all ages participated, Loehr said, with the basketball challenge being altered to fit each age group.

The school has supported other charities in the past, but Montana de Luz created more a fervor to raise funds than previous beneficiaries, Loehr said.

"(Those) didn't mean so much to them as this. They see themselves as being able to help these kids in Honduras," Loehr said.

Montana de Luz was founded in 1999 to provide hospice care to children with HIV/AIDS. Because of medical advances, the hospice home was converted to an orphanage in 2010.

The orphanage provides 35 children with a clean place to live, clean drinking water, medical care and education.

"They're totally raised and given education, provided for, they get medicine. This orphanage is totally dependent on fundraisers," Loehr said. "It's all donations for the existence of this orphanage."

Central College Presbyterian Church is one of many churches across the country that sponsor the orphanage. The school recently became aware of the orphanage and wanted to help, Loehr said.

To encourage the fundraising, students were given incentives that ranged from seeing their principal duct-taped to a wall to throwing pies in school officials faces.

The school held an assembly on March 15 to present the check and reward the students.

In addition to sending the money to the orphanage, the school also sent a basketball signed with students' names to let the orphanage's residents know they were supporting and praying for them, Loehr said.

It was exciting to see students throw their full support behind the fundraiser, Loehr said.

"It was so exciting, the fun that this created in the school," Loehr said.